I see Queen Mab hath been with you
by PalisDelon
Summary: In the Holy Lands my Master had dreams. He said your name.
1. She is the fairies’ midwife

"In the Holy Lands my Master had dreams. He said your name."

* * *

It was a challenge; leaving home and all that went with it. Robin knew it would be some time before he saw the village of Locksley or the Forest again, before he would speak with his Father, before he could touch Marian. Robin was fine on the over land journey south. It was on the boat from Italy to the Holy Lands that the dreams started... 

_The sun cast a harsh glow that illuminated the church door were he stood waiting with his father and the Father. A rustle caused Robin to turn his head to the church yard where he saw walked through the parted crowd the Sheriff... and Marian._

_"She has flowers in her hair." was the only thing Robin could think._

_Marian smiled at Robin as she stepped to the left side of the door. The Father open his book and spoke in a strong voice, "If anyone know of a reason why these two should not be conjoined I charge you on your soul to speak now."_

_Robin felt as if he had been bundled in several think blankets, sights and sounds were muted, all except Marian. Robin saw her in perfect clarity. Heard as she said, "I, Marian, take thee, Robin, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth."_

_Robin felt the Priest place something into his hand, looking down Robin saw it was a ring. Robin took Marian's hand and slipped the ring onto her finger as he said, "With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."_

The first night this dream came to him Robin awoke with a start, causing his hammock to sway wildly. When he had calmed he dismissed it as a fancy.

The second time the dream came to him Robin awoke suddenly, but lay still. When he had calmed he cast his thoughts back over the day to see if there had been some reason for the dream to return.

The third time the dream came to him Robin slowly opened his eyes, savoring the way Marian had looked as she vowed herself to him.

The fourth time the dream came to him Robin stayed asleep. After that the dream changed...


	2. She comes no bigger than an agate stone

"In the Holy Lands my Master had dreams. He said your name."

* * *

After that the dream changed... 

_The main hall of Locksley Manor was crowded with nobles and peasants alike, all there to celebrate the wedding of Robin and Marian. There was feasting and dancing and more wine and ale then anyone had been seen in memory. The celebration had been going for hours and would continue for hours more. But now someone was pushing a tankard of ale into Robin's hand and telling him to follow after his bride. His bride, who was making her way to the quieter sleeping chambers._

_Downing the tankard in a single go, Robin rose and walked across the room. After making his way down the hall Robin came to a stop outside the door to his room, no, outside the door to their room. Robin knocked three quick times. After a moment the door swung ajar, Tanking a breath, Robin slipped passed it into the room._

_Marian was sitting on the bed watching him, the moonlight from the window gave her skin a glow. And there was so much skin. True Marian still had her chemise on, but the hem of it was caught up around her knees and the ribbon through the neck had been loosened allowing her shoulders, and the top of her bosom, to show._

_"I don't think Much will be leaving all that food." Marian said. _

_"No, I don't think he will." Robin managed to reply._

_"Since you find yourself with out a manservant tonight, and since I am here already, maybe I could help you?" Marian had risen from the bed as she said this._

_Robin could not think of anything to say in response._

_Marian stood before him and slowly brought a hand up to his neck, "Your vest first?" Her hands trailed down his chest to the lacing that bound the garment together. With delicate fingers Marian pulled the lacing from the holes, then, grasping the fabric, pushed it from Robin's shoulders. Letting her hands drift from his shoulder down to his back, Marian gently gathered the fabric of his shirt and brought it up over Robin's head._

_Stepping away quickly Robin didn't have time to discern what Marian was doing before she was back before him, "And though today held less labor then normal you would still wish to wash away the dirt of the day." Beginning with his face, Marian used the clean cloth and the bowl of water to wash his exposed skin. "And what about you, my lady?" Robin managed to ask in a teasing voice. "I've already done my washing." Marian said as she placed the bowl and cloth on a near by table. _

_Robin let out a sigh as Marian brushed her hands down the sides of his face, then his chest, but when she asked in her teasing voice, "What now, the belt?" Robin could take no more. Pulling Marian to him, Robin quickly said, "Indeed.", before he kissed her._

Robin awoke from this dream with such a jolt he fell from his hammock. As he sat on the deck rubbing his sore knee and shoulder the only thought he could form was, "I am damned..._  
_


	3. Drawn with a team of little atomies

The pattern followed thus, just as Robin would become use to a dream, it would change. During the long sea voyage Robin saw a life, his life, play out. Long afternoons spent with Marian, sometimes in Locksley, sometime venturing into Sherwood. Evenings talking of village matters; Marian had such heart for people. Nights spent in the bliss of Marian's arms. 

Robin dreamed of both these mundane, how could life with Marian ever be mundane, things and the more eventful; the opening of a new mill, a feast at Nottingham Castle, finding out he was to be a father.

By the time the convoy docked in the Holy Land the dream Marian was growing heavy with the child. The day before Robin saw battle for the first time he dreamed of a baby girl with eyes just like her mothers.

_The sound of Marian in pain was the worst thing Robin ever had to endure. He had never been able to stand the sight of Marian in pain, one of the first clues he had of his love for her. So to force himself to wait in the hall while the midwife and the other women of the manor saw to his wife... It was a task Hercules would not have the strength for._

_"That can't be right. She should not be screaming so. Should she?"_

_The few men left in the hall looked at one another, but it was the steward Thorton who spoke, "It is not uncommon, sir." Much broke in, "I've heard tell of women who bit right through the wood." Thorton threw the young man a stern glare._

_"Wood?" Robin was confused. "How does wood come into it?" Visions of Marian, the midwife, and stacks of planks like Dan Scarlett used for building jumbled in his head._

"_Do you remember when Old Thatcher fell off the roof?" Thorton asked._

"_Yes." Robin had been in the village when it had happened._

"_And the fairer gave him a stout piece of wood to bit down on while the leg was set?"_

_Sudden clarity came to Robin's befuddled mind, "Bit though it!" Oh god! Marian would never allow him near her again. Indeed, he would stay away gladly if it meant she would never have to suffer this way again._

_Then suddenly there was a long moment of silence before the sound resumed. But it was not Marian's cry this time, it was someone much more upset._

_"Excuse me sir... M'Lady is asking for you."_

_Robin flew up the stairs, and knocked into the wall in his hast to see Marian._

_And there she was laying in the bed drowsy and half a-sleep. "Marian?" Robin spoke softly._

_When Marian opened her eyes Robin quickly moved to kneel next to her. Taking a lock of her hair between his fingers he said "You are so brave my love." Robin placed a soft kiss on Marian's forehead, "So wonderfully brave and strong and beautiful."_

_The midwife came over to the bed with a bundle in her arm, "You must sit up M'Lady. The she needs to nurse."_

_One word crashed through Robin's befuddled mind, "She?" he asked as Marian sat up._

_"Yes, she." Marian said with a smile as the midwife passed the bundle to her. "Robin, met your daughter."_

Robin tried to anchor himself to the dream, to the sight of Marian nursing the child. His child. But Much shaking his shoulder was becoming more and more of a reality.

"It is nearly sun rise Master Robin. You need to eat before you see to the men."

Robin ignored Much's chatter as the manservant pulled the lid from the pot that held the leftover stew and dished some into a bowl.

When Robin stepped from his tent the suns rays glared his eyes, and in that moment Robin could once again see the bundle Marian had been holding. "We shall call her Alease."


	4. And then they dream of love

_**And in this state she gallops night by night  
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;**_

The pain was bearable, pain he was used to, but the heat...

Robin lay on his cot, the infection from his wound causing the flesh around it to swell up red and hot. And the heat was everywhere, his arms, his legs, burning into his brain.

"Please Master, you must drink this. It will help you."

Robin knew that voice, but couldn't put a name to it, Matthew? Mark? No, that wasn't right.

"Drink."

Robin lifted his head and then there was something cool in his mouth, slipping down his throat and spilling over his lips. The taste was vile, but anything that took away the heat...

"That's it, Master. It's will take away the pain, help you sleep."

Much, that was the voice's name.

Robin opened his mouth and croaked out, "Much." And then the blackness took over.

_Robin woke up and reached over to pull Marian closer, but his arm fell on to the mattress, empty. Robin lifted his head and looked over to Marian's side of the bed to find no Marian, her pillow wasn't even rumpled._

_Robin got out of the bed and pulled on a pair of pants. He walked over to the door between his and Marian's room. Had Marian started her courses? Other then the time right after the each of the girls had been born, that was the only time they slept apart._

_Pushing open the door Robin found Maria's room empty. Where was she? Robin walked back into his room and grabbed a shirt. He pulled it on an he walked out into the landing that lead down to the main hall._

"_Marian?"_

_It was then that Robin was struck by the stillness. There were no servants in the hall, no sounds from any of the other rooms. Robin ran down the stairs and out the door into the courtyard, "Marian?" He called again, no one was there._

_Robin looked into the stables to find no stable hands there, no animals either._

_Robin felt a chill take hold of his spine and he began to run, the hall was empty, the stables, the courtyard... _

"_Marian!"_

_Robin had reached the edge of Locksley village, there were no fires burning, no children chasing each other, no men working in the field._

"_Marian! Marian where are you!"_

"Marian, Marian!"

Sitting next to his masters cot, Much heard the mutterings and shook his head, "Lady look after him."


	5. O'er courtiers' knees

_**O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,  
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees, **_

Robin sat on a low wall looking out at the sea. Much had gone to over see the transfer of their belongs to the ship heading for England. The fever had taken so much of his strength; it had also taken his dreams of Marian. But in the few weeks since Robin awoke from the fever to King Richard's command that he return home Robin had been forced to face the hard truth; he had left Marian behind and the life he had dreamed, the wedding, the nights in Marian's arms, the two sweet girls that had called him "Papa", by now that would be some other man's life. The man that Marian would have found to take his place. He had no right to dream of her.

* * *

It was wrong, all wrong. First the man in the forest, then coming into Locksley - the fear that everyone had - then Dan Scarlett's hand, and the way Gisborn had treated everyone. Robin knew that there would have been changes while he was gone, but this... This was all wrong.

And now Edward, the man who had been with Robin the night his father died, was yelling that Robin was some trickster come to deceive him.

And then there was Marian.

Hundreds of images flickered through Robin's mind, the other life he had dreamed of, and he found himself saying, "Marian, it is me." in the same tone his dream self spoke with when coming to Marian's bed at night.

She answered something, but Robin had been over taken by the memory of his last dream, the one of an empty bed, an empty hall, an empty life.

"How are you?" He asked, "I thought of you." This was his chance! He could set to making things right with this, with Marian.

"Leave!" That single word hit him like a slap in the face and his purpose for coming here returned to him.

"Sir Edward, if you do not remember me, remember your people! Remember Nottingham!"

The door closed, taking Marian from his sight.

"Interesting."

Much started to talk about something, but only one thought filled Robin's head.

"She is still unmarried."


	6. She driveth o'er a soldier's neck

_**Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,  
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, **_

It was over.

After all that time, all the good people who had been crushed by Sir Guy and the Sheriff, all the cold nights in the forest, all the days spent without food, all the times Marian had called him a fool.

After Roy and Dan Scarlett and Edward had died.

After tongues cut out, castle guards killed, Annie and the baby, John's family and Allan's betrayal.

After King Richard, the real King Richard, had returned and the Sheriff was punished. After families were reunited and Locksley returned. After all that, Robin cried.

It was Marian who found him, sitting under the tree overlooking the village. She didn't speak, just sat down and placed her hand next to his, fingers just brushing.

The sun was starting to sink when Robin finally spoke, "I dreamed of this place, when I was away." Marian reached out and Robin let his head fall into her shoulder. "I dreamed of what I had left, what I should have stayed for." There was a pause, "I dreamed of you."

Robin felt Marian's lips against his forehead. "After days full of killing, of sand turned red from all the blood, I would go into my tent and dream of what I should have been, who I should have been."

"Robin, it has taken me too long to realize this, but you mustn't feel guilty for doing what the King asked you to do." Robin felt his chest move as something mixed halfway between anguish and hope flooded his body.

"The only guilt I carry is not for the men I whose lives I ended, but for two girls whose lives never began." Robin turned his head into Marian's neck. "I can still see them when I close my eyes, See their smiles when you would hold them and sing. That is the guilt I carry."

Marian held him close, one hand stroking through his hair, as the sun set.

"Robin, it is a new night." Robin looked up, and was quickly shocked by the feel of her lips against his. Marian pulled back slightly, "Maybe it's time for a new dream."


End file.
